Happiness

Happiness is fast moving up the political agenda, managing to be above party politics with government placing increased value on its procurement. Issues of well-being have gained currency among policy makers. Creating spaces and building that encourage and promote wellbeing is an investment in public and personal health.

“Happiness” is a project that aims to use the best research and anecdoctal evidence from across a wide range of disciplines to identify and analyze the most important drivers in the field. How do we construct happiness? What components make for a happy building or space? How do we measure and quantify this response?

Aims

• To ascertain the how current authors and academics view the relationship between happiness and the built environment, now and in the future.
• To ensure knowledge and understanding of ‘Happiness Science’ is higher on the agenda of Architects and Designers (etc). To help identify the future challenges and needs that face Happiness in The Built Environment.
• To inform Architects and Designers (etc) of their abilities to affect the happiness of the end users.
• To produce a long-term vision for maximizing Happiness in The Built Environment – for the benefit of society, community and for the individual.

In summer 2008 the project launches the book “Building Happiness” with Blackdog Publishing, comprised of both short commentaries and longer essays concerned with the impact of wellbeing on our built environment. The publication provides a visual representation of the themes addressed with an introduction by Jane Wernick and contributions by architectural and social critics, artists and commentators such as Jeremy Till, Kirsty Wark, Glenda Jackson, Richard Rogers and Richard Wentworth, amongst others.

The publication follows on from numerous consultative initiatives including This House Believes You Can’t Build me Happiness- a public debate hosted in May 2007 with the aim of harvesting public opinion on the issues and creating discussion around the project.

READ MORE ON THE MAY 2007 DEBATE

For more information on this project contact Ed Blake at ed.blake@inst.riba.org

Project Bibliography

Coleman, Alice “Utopia on Trial; Visioning and reality in planned housing” (Hilary Shipman London 1990)

De Botton A. “The Architecture of Happiness” (London: Penguin 2006)

Halpern D. “Mental Health & Built Environment: More Than Bricks And Mortar?” (London: Taylor Francis 1995)

Jenkins S. “Adapt, don’t destroy: Leeds is the template to revive our scarred cities”, (The Guardian 05.05.2006)

Layard R “Happiness: lessons from a New Science” (London: Penguin.2005)
ISBN 0-713-99769-9

Layard R. “Lionel Robbins Memorial lectures 2002/2003” (London School of Economics 3,4,5.03.2006)

Oswald A. (with Rafael Di Tella and Robert Macculloch) “The Macro-economics of Happiness” (University of Bonn2001)

Pinker S. “How the Mind Works” (New York: WW Norton 1997)

Sampson, R and Groves, W. “Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-disorganisation theory,” (American Journal of Sociology, 94, 774-802, 1989)

Bird W. and Reynolds V. “Walking for Health and Happiness” (Readers Digest 2002)
Guite, H “The Impact of the Physical and Urban Environment on Well-being” (Journal of The Royal Institute of Public Health, 120, 117-1126. Dec 2006)

Appleton, Josie “Happiness and Architecture”
(Blueprint 06.2007 pp82-84)

Gummer, John and Goldsmith, Zac “Blueprint for a Green Economy”
(Conservative Party; 2007)

Carl, Peter “Cities and the Pursuit of Happiness”
(Published in Icon Nov. 2004)

Day, Christopher “Places of the Soul: Architecture and Environmental Design as a Healing Art”
(Architectural Press 2004)

Bruno S. Frey, Alois Stutzer “Happiness and Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-being”
(Princeton University Press: 2002)

Wagenaar, Cor “Happy: Cities and Public Happiness in Post-War Europe”
(NAi Publishers: 2004)

Thompson, Sam. Abdallah, Saamah. Marks, Nic. Simms, Andrew and Johnson, Victoria “Are You Happy” ( New Economics Forum: 2007 )

Desai, Pooran and King, Paul
“One Planet Living: A Guide to Enjoying Life on Our One Planet”
(Alastair Sawday Publishing: Bristol 2006)